Paula HarrisPaula lives in Palmerston North, where she writes poems and sleeps in a lot, because that's what depression makes you do. She won the 2018 Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize (judged by Ilya Kaminsky) and 2017 Lilian Ida Smith Award, and will be a writing resident at Vermont Studio Center in late 2018. Her poetry has been published in various New Zealand and Australian journals, including The Spinoff, Poetry NZ Yearbook, Snorkel, takahē, Landfall and Broadsheet.

Aimee-Jane Anderson-O’ConnorAimee-Jane was recently announced as the winner of the 2018 Charles Brasch Young Writers’ Essay Competition, and received the the 2017 Monash Prize for Emerging Writers. Her work has appeared in Starling, Mayhem, Brief, Poetry New Zealand, Landfall, Turbine, Mimicry and Verge. She lives in Kirikiriroa (Hamilton), and writes thanks to the tireless support of some of the best people on this great watery rock.

Madeleine BallardMaddie holds a BA (Hons) in English and German from the University of Auckland. Her work has appeared in Signals and she was a runner-up in the 2013 National Schools' Poetry Award. Her favourite poems include this, this, this, and this, although she does not really believe in favourites. She spends her time reading, singing, running, and trying not to worry.

Kim FultonI write poetry and short fiction. My writing’s previously appeared in Landfall, Mimicry, Poetry NZ, the New Zealand Poetry Society Anthology, Hue and Cry, JAAM, and Takahe. I finished my Master’s degree in Creative Writing at Massey University last year. My thesis consisted of a collection of poems and a critical essay about how indirect approaches to loss (such as humour and irony) can be used to avoid sentimentality in elegiac pieces. I work as the content and communications specialist at Otago Polytechnic's international campus in Auckland. In the past I’ve worked as a journalist and a gardener. In my spare time I like playing football and running. I grew up in west Auckland and that’s where I live now. I’ve also lived on the West Coast of the South Island, in the Manawatu, and in Waikato.

Amanda HuntAmanda is a poet and environmental scientist from Rotorua. Her work has been published in Landfall, Takahē, Te Awa, Mimicry, Poems in the Waiting Room, on poetry and conservation websitesand in numerous New Zealand Poetry Society anthologies. In 2016, she was shortlisted for the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize. Her work has been highly commended in several New Zealand Poetry Society International Competitions.

Jilly O'BrienJilly O'Brien is a Ōtepotī / Dunedin poet and psychologist. Her poems have been published in Takahē, The Spinoff, Otago Daily Times, Blackmail Press, anthologies such as Bread & Roses (UK) Penguin Days and Ice Diver (NZPS), and on a bench in the city's warehouse precinct. She won the Robert Burns poetry competition 2018 and was shortlisted for the Federation of Writers Scotland 2018 Vernal Equinox poetry competition. She writes in Scots and English and is currently writing poems about women from history we thought we knew.

Wes LeeWes Lee lives in Wellington. Her latest poetry collection Body, Remember was launched in 2017 by Eyewear Publishing in London. Her writing has appeared in Westerly, Cordite, Going Down Swinging, Poetry London, The Stinging Fly, Poetry New Zealand, Landfall,and many other publications. She was the recipient of the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Literary Award, and has won a number of awards for her writing. Most recently she was selected as a finalist for the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize 2018.

Isabelle McNeurIsabelle McNeur studies at Victoria University, where she has completed several IIML courses. In 2017 she won the Prize for Original Composition in at the IIML, and she has been published in journals such as Starling, Aotearotica, Flash Frontier, Wizards in Space and Headland. She hopes to one day be financially stable enough to adopt a dog.

Ruby PorterRuby Porter is a prose-writer, poet and artist. She tutors creative writing at the University of Auckland, and in high schools. Ruby has been published in Geometry Journal, Argos, Aotearotica, The Spinoff and The Wireless, and a selection of her poetry is available on NZEPC as part of Six Pack Sounds. She was the winner of the Wallace Foundation Short Fiction Award in 2017, and the inaugural winner of the Michael Gifkins Prize in 2018, with her debut novel Attraction. Attraction was written during her Masters of Creative Writing at the University of Auckland, and will be published in 2019 by Melbourne-based Text Publishing.